Send me a 60-second sample. I will grade it under the 2026 rubric.
I am Michael Buckhoff. I have listened to thousands of TOEFL practice tests. The 2026 TOEFL rubric changes went live on January 21, 2026, and the scoring bar moved. Send me a Speaking recording and I will send back an audio of me grading it live, you hear my reaction, suggestions, and your score in real time. Send a Writing draft and I will write back a one-paragraph diagnosis. Either way: your score under the new rubric, the two or three things costing you points, and what to fix first. No charge. No commitment.
Old rubric language · New rubric language
In one sentence: the TOEFL 2026 rubric changes tighten Speaking and Writing top-band requirements from "occasional errors acceptable" to "consistent facility."
Notice the word consistent in the new rubric. That one word changes the grading band. The same score now requires a stricter response. A 4 in Speaking under the old rubric is closer to a high 3 under the new one. Same number, different bar. So let's take a look at where we are here.
| Section | Old rubric (pre-2026) | New rubric (2026) |
|---|---|---|
| Speaking top band | "Speech is generally clear, fluid and sustained. Minor lapses are noticeable but do not obscure meaning." | "Speech is consistently clear and fluent. Pronunciation, intonation, and pacing show near-native control. Errors are rare and do not interfere with intelligibility." |
| Speaking task count | 4 tasks (1 independent, 3 integrated). 15 to 20 seconds prep per task. | 2 tasks (Listen & Repeat, Take an Interview). Zero prep on the interview task. Spontaneous response required. |
| Writing top band | "Effectively addresses the topic and task. Well organized, well developed, using clearly appropriate explanations, exemplifications, and details. Displays unity, progression, and coherence." | "Fully addresses the prompt with focused, well-developed ideas. Demonstrates consistent facility in syntax and vocabulary. Errors are minor and do not affect meaning." |
| Writing task mix | Integrated Writing (read · listen · write) plus Writing for an Academic Discussion. | Integrated Writing removed. Build-a-Sentence added (binary scored, one wrong word = zero). Email task added. Academic Discussion retained. |
| Reading | Question types include vocabulary, factual, inference, summary, table-fill. Roughly 35 minutes. | Same question pool. Compressed to 30 minutes. Section navigation removed between passages. |
| Listening | Note-taking allowed. Roughly 36 minutes. | Note-taking allowed. Roughly 25 minutes. Replay button removed. |
| Scoring engines | Two human raters per response. SpeechRater used as a third reference on Speaking. | SpeechRater (Speaking) and e-rater (Writing) score first. Human raters review only flagged responses. Templated language is flagged. |
| Total test length | About 3 hours. | About 1 hour 50 minutes. |
§Fig. 01 Test length compared
Your delivery is clear and on-prompt. You are right at the line between bands. The thing costing you the most points is starting three of five responses with "There are several reasons." The engine flags that as templated language. Replace those openings with concrete detail and you move into the 4-band consistently. That's how you get there.
Michael · same week, written by hand
Three universities in the United Kingdom will not accept the 2026 TOEFL.
Here's my opinion, and I might throw an opinion in every now and then. If you are applying to Cambridge or Oxford right now, I would tell you to switch to IELTS Academic. Here is why.
Cambridge undergraduate admissions announced in February 2026 that it will not accept TOEFL iBT scores reported on the new test format. Cambridge cites the absence of an Integrated Writing task as the reason.
Oxford placed the new format on an under-review hold for the 2026-2027 cycle. Students applying to Oxford should use IELTS Academic or wait for clarification.
University of Glasgow postgraduate admissions moved to IELTS-only for all programs starting January 21, 2026. Glasgow accepts pre-January TOEFL scores for one more cycle.
Every other major destination, the United States, Canada, Australia, the European Union, and the rest of the United Kingdom, continues to accept the new TOEFL at the same score thresholds. So if you are not applying to those three schools, you are fine.
Read the full breakdown: Cambridge, Oxford, Glasgow + IELTS conversion table ›
What changed inside each section
In one sentence: Speaking dropped to 2 tasks with no prep time, Integrated Writing was removed, Reading lost section navigation, and Listening lost its replay button.
§Fig. 02 Section-by-section diff
From 4 prepared tasks to 2 spontaneous tasks.
The independent speaking task (45-second response to a personal question) is gone. So are the three integrated speaking tasks. The new format is two tasks.
Listen & Repeat: the student hears a short academic sentence and repeats it. Scored on pronunciation, stress, and intonation by SpeechRater. No prep time. No second attempt.
Take an Interview: a recorded voice asks the student five spontaneous questions across a 4-minute exchange. The student answers each in 30 to 45 seconds. Scored on delivery, language use, and topic development. No prep time on any question.
So if you spent the last six months memorizing templates for the independent task, that prep does not transfer. Now the test rewards the student who can think in English on the fly. That's what I am drilling with every student I see this spring. Send me one practice test per day. Make the changes. Send me the next one. That's how you get better.
Integrated Writing is gone. Two new tasks took its place.
The read-listen-write Integrated Writing task that has anchored the TOEFL since 2005 was retired in January 2026. ETS removed it because the e-rater engine could not reliably distinguish synthesis quality from surface fluency.
Build-a-Sentence: the student is given 6 to 8 fragments of a sentence and types the correct full sentence. Binary scored. One word wrong, one tense wrong, one article wrong, and the response earns zero.
Email task: a 7-minute write-an-email-to-a-professor task. Tone, register, and clarity carry the most weight. The e-rater scores against a published model.
So if you spent two years building a strong Integrated Writing template, that template is gone. The only multi-paragraph task left is the Academic Discussion. My advice is, drop the template thinking and start practicing original prose every day. That's where your Writing score lives now.
Same question types, less time, no navigation.
Reading kept all of the old question categories (factual, inference, vocabulary, summary, table-fill). The section is now 30 minutes instead of 35, and the test taker can no longer go back to an earlier passage after moving on.
So the skim-twice strategy is gone. You read the passage once, you answer the questions, you move on. Single-read accuracy is the only path now. What I tell my students is, practice with one read only when you are preparing. Do not let yourself peek back. That's how you build the habit.
Replay button removed. Note-taking still allowed.
The Listening section dropped from 36 minutes to about 25 and lost the replay button on lecture-question pairs. Students hear each lecture and conversation exactly once.
So notes are not a backup anymore. They are the only way to remember what you heard. If you do not already have a structured note-taking habit, that's the most useful thing to build before test day. Practice with one lecture per day, take notes, then quiz yourself on the inference question. That's how you get better.
The first reader of your response is not a person.
In one sentence: SpeechRater scores every Speaking response first and e-rater scores every Writing response first, with humans only reviewing flagged responses.
ETS uses two scoring engines. SpeechRater listens to every Speaking response. E-rater reads every Writing response. A human only steps in if the engine flags the response as unusual. So when you take the new TOEFL, the first reader is the engine, not the rater.
This is not new technology. SpeechRater has been a reference rater since 2006. E-rater since 1999. What is new in 2026 is that the engines now have first authority on your score. That changes how you should think about every response.
ETS also added a template-detection layer. Here is how I would explain it. If too many of your words match a phrase that shows up in popular prep books, the engine flags your response. Flagged responses lose points. So phrases like "There are several reasons," "In my opinion," and "To begin with," the ones every prep book teaches, now cost you points instead of helping you. My own opinion is, and you can disagree with me, if you are using templates, make them your own. Write your own opening lines that nobody else uses.
Three behaviors the engine rewards in 2026.
1. Vary your sentence openings. If three of your five sentences begin with "In my opinion," the engine sees a template. Mix in "Although," "After," "On most occasions." Notice how that small change breaks the template pattern.
2. Use concrete detail. Instead of saying "my professor's research," you can say "my professor's research on amphibian metabolism." Specific detail is what separates a 3 from a 5. That's the main thing.
3. Stay on the prompt. If the prompt asks about a personal experience, give a personal experience. Generic answers score lower in 2026 than they used to. Be specific.
Watch · Michael on the 2025-26 bulletin
The new rubric helps some students. It hurts others.
In one sentence: template memorizers, slow planners, Integrated Writing specialists, and skim-readers lose points under the 2026 rubric, while spontaneous speakers and structured note-takers gain.
Here is what I am seeing. The same student who scored 26 Speaking under the old rubric might now score 23. Or they might score 28. It depends on how they studied, not how hard. So let's look at who is winning and losing on the new test.
- Template memorizers. Notice how "In conclusion, for the reasons stated above" and "There are three main reasons" are the first phrases every prep book teaches. The engine knows that. It flags them on the first use. So if those lines are your safety net, you are going to lose points the moment you use them.
- Slow planners. The new Speaking format has zero prep time. If you needed those 15 to 20 seconds of preparation last year, you are going to speak the first thing you think of in 2026, and that first thing is usually a template phrase. So build the habit of speaking off the cuff before test day.
- Integrated Writing specialists. If your Integrated Writing score was higher than your Independent Writing score, that delta is gone. There is no Integrated Writing task anymore. So now your Writing score lives entirely in original prose. That's a real shift.
- Skim-readers. The Reading section now forces single-read accuracy. If you used to go back to the passage three times for each question, you cannot. So I would tell you, practice with one read only. Do not peek back. That's how you build the habit.
- Spontaneous speakers. The Take an Interview task is a 4-minute exchange with no prep time. If you can hold a real conversation in English without rehearsed lines, this task is built for you. That's the new top-scorer profile.
- Structured note-takers. Listening still allows notes, and now it demands them. The replay button is gone. So your notes are the only retrieval mechanism. Students who built the habit on lecture material before test day score the highest.
- Writers with range. The Email task and the Academic Discussion task reward students who can switch register cleanly. Formal to a professor, conversational to a peer. So practice both, every day.
- Students who read widely in English. The Build-a-Sentence task tests grammar instinct, not memorized rules. Reading volume is the strongest predictor of a high score on it. So read at least one English article a day. That's how you build the instinct.
Students who sent samples and got their scores.
Verified outcomes from students who used my feedback service. Three of these are on the new 2026 rubric. Names and full identifiers redacted at student request.
After multiple attempts, I was ready to give up. This guidance helped me finally move forward.
I finally passed and scored a 5 in writing. The templates and evaluation made the difference.
Thank you for your patience and support. We did it.
I am so grateful. I earned the required scores for my pharmacy license.
From daily practice to 100/120 (C1). Speaking 5.5. Writing 4.5.
One of my students walking through how she went from struggling on Speaking and Writing to a 100/120 result. Same workflow as the one I will use with your samples.
You send the recording or draft. I score it under the 2026 rubric. Same week.
Step one. You send a 60-second Speaking recording or a Writing draft. Step two. I read or listen to it the way SpeechRater listens to Speaking, and the way e-rater reads Writing. Step three. I send feedback. For Speaking samples, I send back an audio recording of me grading your sample live, you hear my reaction, suggestions, and score in real time. For Writing samples, a one-paragraph diagnosis. Either way: your score under the new rubric, the two or three things costing you points, and what to fix first. No charge for the first sample. No commitment to anything else. If you want more feedback after that, we can talk. That's how you get better.
Notice the word generally in the new rubric. You are right at the line. Your delivery is clear and your topic development is on-prompt. The thing costing you the most points is your reliance on the phrase "There are several reasons" at the start of three of your five responses. The engine flags that pattern as templated language. Replace those openings with concrete detail and you move into the 4-band consistently. That's how you get there.
- Fix one. Vary your sentence openings. Use "Although," "After," or "On most occasions" in place of "There are several reasons."
- Fix two. Open with a concrete example. Instead of "I prefer studying with others because," say "When I was preparing for my chemistry midterm, I joined a five-person study group."
- Fix three. Drop the filler. You say uh 14 times in 45 seconds. Practice with one 30-second response per morning until that number is under 3.
Michael
Questions students are asking about the 2026 TOEFL
Is the 2026 TOEFL easier or harder than the pre-2026 version?
It is shorter (1 hour 50 minutes vs. 3 hours), which feels easier. The scoring bar in Speaking and Writing is higher, which makes it harder. On balance, students who relied on templates and prep time score lower in 2026. Students who write and speak fluently score about the same.
Will universities accept the new TOEFL at the same score thresholds as the old one?
Most universities yes, three universities no. Cambridge undergraduate admissions, Oxford (under review), and University of Glasgow postgraduate admissions will not accept the new TOEFL for the 2026-2027 cycle. Every other major destination accepts the new TOEFL at the same thresholds they used in 2025.
Does AI score my Speaking and Writing responses now?
Yes. SpeechRater listens to every Speaking response first. E-rater reads every Writing response first. A human rater only reviews the responses the engine flags as unusual. The engines have been around since 1999 and 2006, that's not new. What is new in 2026 is that they have first authority on your score. So you have to think about every response with the engine in mind, not just a human rater.
If I memorized templates for my Independent Speaking task, can I still use them?
No, and here is the bigger problem. The Independent Speaking task does not exist anymore. So if you memorized lines for it, those lines have nowhere to go. And the engine flags template phrases, "There are several reasons," "In my opinion," "To begin with," on every other task too. So that prep work is now actively hurting you, not helping. What I tell my students is, stop drilling lines. Start building vocabulary range and the habit of speaking off the cuff. That's how you get better.
How does Build-a-Sentence affect my Writing score?
Build-a-Sentence is binary scored. One word wrong, one tense wrong, one article wrong, you earn zero. The task contributes about 18% of the Writing section score. A student who is shaky on subject-verb agreement or article usage will lose those points reliably.
Should I take the test before or after January 21, 2026?
If you are applying to Cambridge or Oxford, take the pre-January version while it is still accepted. If you are applying anywhere else, take the new version. The new test is shorter, the score concordance is published, and the major destinations accept it at the same thresholds.
How do I prepare for the Take an Interview task with zero prep time?
You build the habit of speaking English without scripting. Daily practice with a recorded prompt and a 30 to 45 second response is the single most useful exercise. Record yourself, listen back, and notice the moments you fall back on memorized phrases. Replace those with concrete nouns and specific examples from your own life.
How can Michael help me prepare for the 2026 TOEFL specifically?
I grade every sample against the 2026 bands. I read it the way SpeechRater reads it for Speaking, and the way e-rater reads it for Writing. So I can flag templated phrases the engine will flag, before the test, not after. Send me one practice test per day. Make the changes I send back. Send me the next one. That's how you get to 26.
One paragraph diagnosis · Same week turnaround
Last call. Send me a sample.
I read 5 to 7 samples per week, one at a time. The new TOEFL went live on January 21, 2026. If you are taking it this cycle, you want feedback under the 2026 rubric, not the old one. Send a 60-second Speaking recording. I will send back an audio of me grading it live. Send a Writing draft. I will send back a one-paragraph diagnosis. Either way, your score under the new rubric and the two or three things to fix first. Free. Same week. No commitment. That's how you get better.
Send Michael your sample ›